Sean Avery Joins List of Top 20 Trash Talkers In All Sports

Sean Avery is the King of the Trash-Talkers, according to a headline in the New York Times.

He is the "Undisputed king/clown of potty-mouthed noise", according to the Calgary Herald and Ottawa Citizen.

Even the New Yorker magazine says Avery may be the best trash-talker.
   
The rise of trash-talking in today’s NHL was the subject of a story in Calgary Herald, and it identified the Rangers’ Sean Avery as the biggest mouth in the league.

And that was before the off-colour commentary Avery made in Calgary that got him suspended by the NHL and not invited back to the Dallas Stars.

Trash-talk, according to Wikipedia, is a form of boast or insult commonly heard in competitive situations (such as sports events).

It is often used to intimidate the opposition, but can also be used in a humorous spirit. Trash-talk is often characterized by hyperbolic, figurative language (e.g. "Your team can't run! You run like honey on ice!").

Puns and other wordplay are commonly used.

Some athletes are intimidating trash talkers who save their antics for opponents and talk smack in order to distract their nemesis and get him off his game.

Boxing and basketball are best known for trash talk but baseball is right up there and hockey is famous for it, too.

One of the greatest trash-talking moments occurred not in Calgary in 2008 but in the 1997 NBA Finals between the Chicago Bulls and the Utah Jazz.

During a Sunday game, Karl Malone, also known as "The Mailman", stepped to the free-throw line, and Scotty Pippen walked behind him and said, “The Mailman doesn’t deliver on Sunday.”

The Mailman choked, throwing up two bricks, and then Michael Jordan won the game with a buzzer-beater.

Jordan is known as one of the best trash-talkers of all sports. First he would tell his opponent what he was going to do, then he would do it, and then he would get in their face and go over it again.

In a game against the Denver Nuggets, Jordan stepped to the foul line and told rookie Dikembe Mutombo that he would shoot the free throw with his eyes closed. He looked at Mutombo and said, “This one’s for you.” Then he closed his eyes, hit the shot and told Mutombo, “Welcome to the NBA.”

Larry Bird was Jordan's equal in trash talk, some say, and Charles Barkley was right up there with them.

Barkley shocked a nation when he appeared in a Nike ad and said, “I am not a role model.”

Muhammad Ali is regarded as the No. 1 trash talker of all time. He once said, “Joe Frazier is so ugly that he should donate his face to the U.S. Bureau of Wildlife.”

Ali famously said, “It will be a killer, and a chiller, and a thriller, when I get the gorilla in Manila.”

Floyd Mayweather, aka Pretty Boy Floyd, said, “When I retire, I’ll get Ricky Hatton to wash my clothes and cut my lawn and buckle my shoes. Ricky Hatton ain’t nothing but a fat man. I’m going to punch him in his beer belly. He ain’t good enough to be my sparring partner.”

Mike Tyson had these words for Lennox Lewis: “My style is impetuous. My defense is impregnable. And I’m just ferocious. I want your heart. I wanna eat his children. Praise be to Allah.”
           
Jim McMahon, the Chicago Bears quarterback, once alienated an entire continent by referring to Europe as a place where “The people don’t take baths and they don’t speak English. No golf courses; no room service. Who needs it?”

McMahon also said, “Who do I think the Bears should draft? I think the Bears should draft a new owner.”

Jose Canseco, one of the “Bash Brothers” during the late ‘80s and early ‘90s along with Mark McGwire, with the Oakland Athletics wrote a book called Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant ‘Roids, Smash Hits & How Baseball Got Big.
 
John Rocker of the Atlanta Braves offended a wide range of groups, including New Yorkers. He insulted so many people, he needed security escorts to exit stadiums.

His thoughts on New York were quoted in Sports Illustrated: “It’s the most hectic, nerve-racking city. Imagine having to take the Seven Train to the ballpark, looking like you’re riding through Beirut next to some kid with purple hair, next to some queer with AIDS, right next to some dude who just got out of jail for the fourth time, right next to some 20-year-old mom with four kids. It’s depressing.” 

Terrell Owens played football with the 49ers, Eagles, and Cowboys and famously lashed out at former teammate and 49ers QB Jeff Garcia in Playboy magazine, suggesting that he was a homosexual. When confronted about the statement later, Owens declared, “Like my boy tells me; if it looks like a rat and smells like a rat, by golly, it is a rat.”

John McEnroe’s name is synonymous with tennis and with the term “loud mouth.” SuperBrat was nearly kicked out of Wimbledon in 1981 for cursing at the tournament referee and calling Ted James, the umpire, the “pits of the world.”

During his match with Bjorn Borg, McEnroe argued against a linesman call, beginning with his famous phrase, “You cannot be serious… ” and ended with a string of profanity.

Shannon Sharpe, a dominant receiver with the Denver Broncos in the mid-‘90s, once said this about the Colts’ defense: “Home Depot doesn’t sell enough nails and plywood to fix what’s wrong with that defense.”

Jeremy Roenick, after scoring on Patrick Roy, said, “I’d like to know where Patrick was in Game Three, probably up trying to get his jock out of the rafters.”

During the 2005 NHL lockout Roenick said: “We’re going to try to make it better for everybody, period, end of subject. And if you don’t realize that, then don’t come. We don’t want you at the rink, we don’t want you in the stadium, we don’t want you to watch hockey...I say personally, to everybody who called us ’spoiled,’ you guys are just jealous.”

That list suggests there are at least 15 famous trash-talkers ahead of Avery.

Scott Cruickshank of the Calgary Herald rated Avery as the No. 1 trash talker of hockey players, followed by Alex Burrows of the Canucks, Steve Otta of the Dallas Stars, Jared Boll of the Blue Jackets, Zach Stortini of the Oilers, Corey Perry of the Ducks, Ryan Kesler of the Canucks, Dion Phaneuf of the Calgary Flames, Jordin Tootoo of the Nashville Predators, and Jarkko Ruutu of the Penguins.

Darcy Tucker of the Maple Leafs, Matt Cooke of the Capitals, and Steve Downie of the Flyers, were not in the top ten but were next on his list.

Avery's trash talk even got a mention in the New Yorker magazine. Nick Paumgarten wrote, "He does research on his opponents and tailors his intra-whistle banter accordingly."

Paumgarten also said Avery "goads foes into losing their focus and, in theory, the game."

The New Yorker writer added, "Every team in the National Hockey League has at least one agitator, but Avery may be the best, or the worst, of the current lot."